BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

What would you do to get your business started?

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If you are like me, you have read countless stories of start-up businesses.  They bootstrap, they borrow, they get investors.  They start with $10 and a laptop and become professional speakers.  They do this and they do that and sometimes, we don’t even really know who “they” are.

The question still stands, what would you do to get your business started?  Would you fund it yourself (bootstrap)?  Would you go to the bank, family, friends, etc for loans?  Would you pitch the idea to venture capitalists for the money?  What would you do?

For many of us, our business ideas are small.  We may want to open a restaurant, a small specialty store, or something.  If you don’t have a pile of money sitting around, you either go to the bank or get investors.  Since the idea is small, investors are usually not interested.  Since often, this is your first business, banks don’t want to take the risk on a start-up.  What do you do?

Besides borrowing the money from friends and family, here are some ideas to get you thinking:

  • RothIRA contributions can be withdrawn at any time with no penalty or tax liability (Please don’t take my word for it, call the IRA to make sure…)
  • If you cancel your cable tv or satellite your head will not explode, the world will not end, and if you have them, your children will not die from boredom.  You will often save over $50 per month, add more than 10 hours per week to work on your business, and learn that reading can be fun informative (and free if you utilize your local public library)
  • The food that is the best for you is often some of the cheapest.  I have been trying to eat better and part of that is eating more legumes.  Many days, my lunch consists of a small chicken breast, black beans and lentils.  I cook it all in batches and have lunches for several days.  It is cheap, easy, nutritious, and tasty.  Personally, I like to have the lentils and black beans together, otherwise, the whole meal is not as yummy as I like it to be.

These ideas mostly focused on money, but often, time is in shorter supply for many of us.  We rush here and there, taking kids to school, picking them up, transporting them to and from activities.  As a society, we equate activity with productivity and if we are not moving, we get restless and bored.  These activities are all choices, although they often seem like necessities.  What can we do?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about time:

  • Your children don’t have to be involved in several activities at one time.  If your child is doing two sports, you are spending a lot of time (and money) getting back and forth to practice, games, etc.  I believe that family time is very important and feel that a limit of one activity a year (yes, a year) is a reasonable limit.  So, if my child wants to play soccer, that is fine, but it is also the only “organized” activity besides church they will participate in that year.  Some people may think that view is harsh.  I am teaching my children to focus their attention and concentrate on what they really enjoy.  Sometimes, we have to get rid of a few good things in our lives to make room for the great things.
  • I started waking up at 5:30a, changing from 6:00a.  May not sound like much, but I can usually get 45 minutes of work or study in before starting my “real” job.  It was a very minor change but it did take time.  I have tried and failed to wake up earlier many times before  until I read about creating habits at Zen Habits (a blog by Leo Babauta).  For a week, I set my alarm at 5:55a.  Next week, it was 5:50a, then 5:45a, etc until 5:30a.  Not as difficult as you would think
  • As I mentioned in the money ideas, getting rid of TV not only saves money, but a lot of time.  If you can’t bear to miss your favorite shows, often times you can watch them for free over the internet when you want (I especially like House, Bones, NCIS, Eureka, and Warehouse 13 to name a few)

Starting a business can be difficult.  It takes money, it takes time, and often, you don’t have much extra of either.  Is it all worthwhile?  What would you do to start a business?  I believe this excerpt from Robert Frost says it all:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

What would you sacrifice to accomplish a goal that would make all the difference?

Are you taking the path less traveled, or just following the crowd?

What would you do to be remarkable?

“Great” Expectations

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There are some authors that just resonate with you.  One such author for me is Dan Miller.  I have recently read some past blog entries of his and came across this one, Do you “expect” greatness?.  I feel very connected to that quote as I am raising my children.  We should always expect the best or more from our children and others.  Often times, we fall short.  How would the lives of others or your children be different if you not only expected greatness from them, but helped with their journey to greatness, while not judging.

Along those same lines is a concept from a book I recently read, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander; Give everyone an “A”.  The idea behind giving everyone an “A” is that you should treat everyone as if they are doing their best, all the time, and that they have already succeeded.  You are not judging them.  You “expect” greatness from them.  It frees people from the pressures they may feel to make you happy and lets them be great in any way, not just how you think.  If there is a problem, you don’t assume that person is the problem (remember, they are doing their best), rather there could be some issue beyond their control or even that you are causing.

Everyone deserves to have greatness expected of them, whether it is the server at your local restaurant, you significant other, angry customer, or anyone.  Are you giving everyone an “A”?  I challenge you, next time you are waiting for you food that is taking a little longer than you think it should or in a slow check-out line, to not be angry or upset in any way at the situation. You should “Give everyone an A” by expecting that they are doing the best they can and offering a kind word and a smile.  Now that is “expecting” greatness from yourself.

Practical Small Business Technology Marketing – Part I – Barcodes

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Technology can have a huge impact on the marketing efforts of small businesses.  Most of the technology is low cost or free but requires time and a little knowledge to take advantage of.  This series of posts will focus on practical examples to apply technology to small business marketing.  In this first post, I will detail some practical ways to implement barcodes into small business marketing, with a focus being on QR barcodes.

QR linking to this post

Smartphones are popular.  Those “magic phones” can do a variety of tasks and most people that have them are rarely out of arm’s reach of the devices.  Most modern smartphones are capable of scanning barcodes through embedded or third-party applications (one such application that I have used is RedLaser).  Through these applications, you can check prices of products online and at local stores as well as get more information on the products themselves.  But not all barcodes are equal; there are many variations to the common (or not so common) barcodes.

The standard barcode that most of us are familiar with is considered a one-dimensional (1D) barcode.  They are printed on practically all products you buy, encoding a limited amount of specific information that businesses use to identify the product.  By utilizing algorithms and encoding methods, more information can be added to the barcode within the same physical space, increasing the density of the information available.  With this extra information, smartphone makers and application designers are able to trigger distinct events, such as links to websites, contact information, and text messages among others.  There are many different ways to encode the data, but one of the most popular is the QR, or Quick Response barcode. [Read more…]

How to read a book (…or at least, how I read a book)

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(Photo by graur codrin)

Reading is important.  It is said that in 5 years, the person you become will be influenced by the people you know and the book you read.  Books allow readers to learn from experts, adventurers, and others that we would most likely never come into contact with.  We learn from the successes, the failures, and the creativity of the writing in such a variety of subjects.  According to Wikipedia, in 2009, there were over 280,000 books published in the United States alone.  With such a huge amount of information in books, if you can’t find something you are interested in reading, you might need to check your pulse.

When you find something you are interested in reading, it is always a good idea to occasionally add in a little variety.  You should have variety in life, whether it is food choices, social interactions, or sources of information.  I personally prefer reading to learn.  Most of the time, that preference takes the form of business books, entrepreneurial books, and a wide variety of other subjects chosen to increase knowledge.  I keep a list of books I am interested in reading.  Normally, that list is over 75 books and more often than not, over 100.  I don’t always pick a book from that list, but I am usually making progress through the ones I really want to read.  Some of my most recent books includes a book on game theory (Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life), ancient strategy (The Book of Five Rings), and how to interact better with your physicians (How Doctors Think). That should not imply that type of reading is not for pleasure; I enjoy reading immensely and feel that it helps me mentally and emotionally to have that quiet time to myself.  I do read fiction, but not very often, and usually in the form of audiobooks (typically after 2 or 3 non-fiction books I will listen to a fiction audiobook).

Audiobooks give additional reading time to drivers and riders

Audiobooks are a great way to start out or supplement your reading.  There are many times you can listen to audiobooks, but most often, I do so when driving or riding in an automobile. [Read more…]